Empathia AI vs Playback Health
A 2024 retrospective HCAHPS comparison of seven neurosurgery providers, four of them platform users, found higher satisfaction scores for users. It concerns Playback's patient app, which replays the clinician's own explanation and care plan on the patient's phone, and not the scribe. Playback Pro produces ICD-10 and CPT codes, orders and translation into 15+ languages, and the vendor says it is BAA eligible and SOC 2 secure. It offers a trial button and a demo booking in place of a price. Empathia AI is a scribe and front-desk platform for individual clinicians, at $50 per month billed annually or $75 billed monthly, currency not stated, with patient-facing documents in 30+ languages. A hospital service line such as neurosurgery that wants the scribe and the patient replay together would look at Playback. A group that wants notes and a phone agent, with the cost on the page, would take Empathia.
AI medical scribes · Reviewed November 2, 2026
Empathia AI
by Empathia AI, Inc.
General-purpose ambient AI scribe and documentation platform for US and Canadian clinicians.
Playback Health
by Playback Health, Inc. · founded 2018
Ambient AI scribe for hospitals, plus a patient app that replays clinician care instructions after the visit.
When to pick each one
Empathia AI
- Patient documents in 30+ languages
- Front Desk Emma answers phones
Playback Health
- Hospital scribe with a patient replay app
- Epic, eClinicalWorks and NextGen direct integration listed
- BAA eligible, per vendor
Score
Each row shows points earned of points available under the published rubric.
Empathia AI
54of 100
Playback Health
67of 100
| Dimension | Empathia AI | Playback Health | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| HIPAA / SOC2 / BAA | 13 / 13 | 13 / 13 | 0 |
| EHR integrations (count) | 10.5 / 21 | 14.7 / 21 | -4.2 |
| Top-3 EHR coverage (Epic / Oracle / Athena) | 8.4 / 12 | 12 / 12 | -3.6 |
| Bidirectional write-back | 0 / 5.2 | 0 / 5.2 | 0 |
| Peer-reviewed papers | 0 / 7 | 4.9 / 7 | -4.9 |
| RCT / meta-analysis / systematic review | 0 / 3 | 0 / 3 | 0 |
| Funding & adoption signal | 8.4 / 12 | 3 / 12 | +5.4 |
| Pricing transparency | 5 / 5 | 2.5 / 5 | +2.5 |
| Years in market | 0 / 6 | 6 / 6 | -6 |
Scroll horizontally to see every column.
Pricing
Empathia AI
| Tier | Billing period | Price | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Free Trial | free trial | Free | 21 days or 100 encounters, all Premium features, no credit card. Pricing page only. The FAQ separately describes a free plan of 10 encounters per 30 days, which the pricing page does not show, so it is not listed here. |
| Premium, billed annually | per month, billed annually | $50 | Marked Most Popular. Per month billed annually. Currency not stated on the page, read as USD. Annual price locked for 12 months, cancel anytime. Free for approved medical students and residents. The "Exclusive Offer Extended" banner has no terms or end date. |
| Premium, billed monthly | per month, billed monthly | $75 | Same Premium tier, billed monthly. Currency not stated on the page, read as USD. |
Verified November 2, 2026 from empathia.ai (opens in new tab).
Playback Health
| Tier | Monthly | Annual | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Enterprise | n/a | n/a | No public price. The Pro page offers Start free trial and Book a demo; trial length and price are not shown. |
Evidence
Empathia AI
No FDA decision, peer-reviewed study or community post in our record.
Playback Health
Compliance and integrations
Documented from each vendor’s own pages.
| Spec | Empathia AI | Playback Health |
|---|---|---|
| Free tier | ||
| HIPAA | ||
| SOC 2 Type II | ||
| EHR integrations | athenahealth, Accuro, DrChrono, eClinicalWorks, Epic, OSCAR McMaster, Plexia | Epic, Cerner, Allscripts, athenahealth, eClinicalWorks, NextGen, Meditech, DrChrono |
| Founded | n/a | 2018 |
| HQ | n/a | US |
Scroll horizontally to see both columns.
Common questions
Open the full ai medical scribes comparison
The best AI medical scribe for most US physicians is Abridge for hospital systems, Freed AI for solo practice (plans from $39 to $119 per month as of October 2026), Heidi Health for multilingual capture, and DAX Copilot for Microsoft-shop hospitals. Each pick below names its primary EHR integration, pricing model, and the clinician communities that surface it most often. Enterprise scribes are quote-based, with third-party estimates of roughly $208 to $600 per provider per month as of October 2026.